


Along the Way

by RogueCompanion



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fate & Destiny, Kylo Ren Being a Little Shit, M/M, Rey is not taking his shit, Road Rage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 23:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14726016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogueCompanion/pseuds/RogueCompanion
Summary: "Because the greatest part of a road trip isn't arriving at your destination. It's all the wild stuff that happens along the way." -Emma Chase, Tamed.At a turning point in her life, Rey embarks on a journey to return an important item to a stranger who had been very important to her adopted father.  Along the way she hopes to find a place to belong, a home, now that the only one that had mattered is gone. But things don't always go the way we planned, and sometimes there's just no escaping fate.





	Along the Way

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so this is the first thing I've written in a very long time and my first time writing anything in the Star Wars fandom. I'm brushing off the dust here so I hope this isn't too rough for y'all. Let me know what you think!

This was crazy. SHE was crazy. Who just quits their job and drops everything to drive cross country to hunt down some guy they’ve never met and return some sword that belonged to his father?!

Apparently, her.

To be fair, the job sucked. Basically slave labor for a creepy asshole with no neck. Plutt was so large he looked more blob than human, unwashed and seedy as shit. Just the memory of the feeling of his eyes on her made her cringe. No, it was worth it to tell that fucker what he could do with his scrap yard job and his suggestive comments. No love lost there, that’s for sure. 

There was honestly not much about the desert that Rey had left behind that she was going to miss. Really the only thing, only person, wasn’t even there anymore. So she had nothing left.

Ben Kenobi was dead. Her adopted father for the last several years, basically the only human she cared about, was gone. He’d left her everything, which wasn’t a whole lot, but she did have this gorgeous old car and a few things of sentimental worth, something she’d never had before him, having spent most of her childhood shuffled from home to home. And now, a purpose. One of Ben’s last requests. Find a man named Luke Skywalker and return this priceless sword that had been given to his father during World War II by some princess. 

So here she was, having cleared out the small home they’d shared and packed up her few belongings, the furthest from Niima, New Mexico she’s ever been. Somewhere a few miles east of the Texas border, and contemplating what the hell she was doing. 

Up ahead she saw a road sign advertising the gas stations and restaurants located in the next approaching town. Her stomach gave a loud grumble at the thought of a greasy cheeseburger and fries. “Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to grab some food and gas,” she spoke to herself while keeping alert for the exit. 

She switched over to the right hand lane in preparation for her exit from the highway, and noticed a sleek black sports car come speeding up behind her in the rear view mirror. The driver laid on their horn and then whipped around her. 

“Yeah, fuck you too asshole!” She yelled, throwing up her middle finger as they pulled up beside her in their attempt to get around. The person rolled down the dark tinted window so that she could see them return the gesture. 

Ok, now she was pissed! She was obeying all traffic laws, still going just above the speed limit, perfectly acceptable as she was no longer in the fast lane and had definitely not cut this guy off when she’d switched lanes, and this fucker wanted to give her a hard time?! In her rage she couldn’t really think of any gesture she could do to really get her point across to this douche, so involuntarily her hand came up and made an angry jerking off motion. 

The young dark haired man driving the other car looked shocked for a moment and then burst out laughing. Like that was the funniest shit he’d ever seen. She was surprised that he was able to maintain control of his vehicle, he was convulsing so hard with laughter. She started to think about what she’d just done, her actions finally catching up in her brain. She turned bright red, but started laughing as well. 

She looked over at the guy once more and he flashed her a smile and a small wave then began to speed up again while rolling up his window. Soon he was far ahead of her, too quickly for her to quite make out what his personalized vanity plates said, because of course someone like that would spend the extra money to make sure you knew whose car that was. “KVLDREM? What the hell did that say?”

Shaking her head over the distraction, she noticed her exit fast approaching. Hurriedly, she turned on her blinker and pulled off the highway and onto the exit, entering a small town that consisted of a few different gas stations, a handful of fast food joints and a diner. 

After taking care of her needs and spending a little while walking around and stretching her legs she got back in the car and was on her way again. The wind had picked up a bit while she was eating her late lunch and several dark angry clouds had blown in. It definitely looked like the weather was gearing up for quite a bad storm, she was hoping she could out run it on the highway. At least until she made it to her planned stopping point for the evening. 

She made it back on the highway and was so far doing a good job of staying in front of the weather. She had lost radio signal awhile back so she was stuck listening to the handful of old cassette tapes Ben had left in the car, several classic rock mixed tapes from back in the 70s, and oddly enough a single ABBA cassette. The gears inside the player were so old and loud that she had to turn the music up pretty loud in order to actually hear it over the noise of the player itself. 

So with some Foreigner playing in the background she drove and contemplated what she’d do once this journey was over. Once she handed this Luke guy his father's sword she’d need to figure out what to do with herself. She was hoping that some place along the way she’d find a town that would catch her eye. Somewhere she could find a job and an affordable place to live, somewhere she could belong and make her home. 

She spent the next few hours driving and daydreaming about the kind of place she’d like to end up. So distracted was she that she didn’t notice the debris in the middle of the highway, fallen from some truck and blown about with the high winds ushering in the storm behind her. She ran over it, and was startled out of her thoughts as she fought for control of the vehicle. Weaving back and forth momentarily after, a loud pop informed her that she’d lost a tire due to her carelessness. She pulled onto the shoulder of the road and got out to examine the damage. 

Her front passenger side tire was done for. Completely flat with a noticeable hole. This was nothing she couldn’t handle, she spent most of her teen years working on cars. She popped the trunk and pulled out the necessary items to change her tire. She jacked the car up relatively quickly and went about trying to wrench the lug nuts off so she could remove the tire. This part, however, was not going as smoothly as she expected. Whoever had last changed this tire seemed to have tightened the nuts just a little too much. She considered herself to be a pretty strong individual, but this seemed to be getting the better of her. 

Frustrated, she looked around. She seemed to be completely alone on this stretch of highway and those dark clouds that were behind her were slowly catching up. She hadn’t made it a habit of playing the victim her whole life and she wasn’t about to start now. 

She positioned the wrench on one of the nuts, then grabbed onto the roof of the vehicle and hoisted herself onto the end of the wrench bouncing up and down lightly to use her body weight to loosen the nut. She probably looked like a complete moron, and this was probably super unsafe, but desperate times and all that. 

She’s gotten two nuts off in this manner and was working on the third when the first rain drops began to fall. Just great!

She paused momentarily to think. She had two options here. Quickly get the spare tire on while weathering the storm, or get in the car and wait it out. She didn’t think it’d be safe to sit in the car while it was still lifted on the jack and the storm has only just begun, so she decided to keep going. The water made her hopping attempts at loosening the nuts even more difficult and she slipped off a couple times. 

The third nut finally gave and she went crashing to the ground as it did so, all of her weight having been in the wrench at the time. As she sat on the ground getting her breath back she heard a car pull up behind hers. She carefully pulled herself up to assure who ever had stopped that she was fine on her own, but as she looked she realized she recognized that car. The sleek black sports car with vanity license plates she could finally make out, which didn’t really help with her earlier question on the matter. What the fuck is a KYLOREN?

The tall figure of the man full of road rage from earlier unfolded himself from the low driver's seat. He looked over at her and recognition sparked in his eyes as well. 

“Ah, it’s you, jerk off girl,” he stated with a smirk. 

“The hell did you just call me?” Rey cried indignantly. That was a charming nickname...

“That little motion you made a while back there? That was hardly lady like.” His smug look grated on Rey’s nerves, forcing her to lash out. 

“Well your behavior was hardly befitting of a gentleman, so fuck your lady like.” She seemed pleased with herself at this clever response. 

His smirk just grew even bigger. 

Rey huffed and returned to her task, maybe if she ignored him he’d go away. She moved the wrench to the final bolt and pulled herself up to climb on the end of the wrench again when he suddenly looked alarmed and moved to her side. 

“What the hell are you doing? You’re going to hurt yourself,” he rushed out with a sound of mild distress in his voice. 

“What does it look like? I’m changing my damn tire. These damn things are too tight, but I’ve got this,” she pushed out annoyed by his interruption. 

He gently pushed her out of the way and leaned down to loosen the last nut. 

“What the hell are you doing? I told you I have this. Get back in your pretty little Challenger over there and be on your way. I don’t need any help.” At this point her clothes were soaked through and she had goosebumps all over, her hair hanging wetly in her face. 

He didn’t move away from her car, didn’t even pause in what he was doing. He glanced her way quickly and then returned to his task. “While it absolutely looked like you had everything under control, falling on your ass and all, I can do this quicker. And judging by the severity of your shivering over there, the sooner you get back in your warm car, the better. Small as you are, you’re likely to get hypothermia.”

“You almost sound as if you care,” she stuttered out through clenched teeth. 

“Well sure, wouldn’t want anything to happen to my new favorite angry midget.” He pulled the damaged tire off as he said this and grabbed the spare to seat it on the car. 

She gasped in outrage. “Midget?! I’ll have you know I’m slightly above average height for someone my age!” Here she crossed her arms and stopped just short of stomping her foot. What was it about this guy that made her so darn angry?

“You’re still so much shorter than me, so… midget.” He tightened the nuts back in place. “Ok, well, we’re done here. You may want to get that tire fixed in the next big town you come to, but thankfully, your spare is an actual tire and not one of those stupid little donuts. It’s been a pleasure helping you, midget in distress,” he stood up brushing off his hands and then running them through his wet hair. 

The sight of his dark t-shirt clinging tightly to his chest distracted her momentarily, enough so that she had no control over the words exiting her mouth. “I have a name. It’s Rey. And I guess thanks, even though I could have done it myself.” She certainly hadn’t meant to give him any personal information, not even her name. She distracted herself with picking up the damaged tire and throwing it in her trunk. 

He sidled up beside her and held out his hand “I’m Kylo.”

“That explains the license plate,” she said unthinkingly. Her eyes grew as wide as saucers once she realized what she’d said. 

He just laughed at that and handed her the jack he’d lowered while she was putting away the tire. “Well, Rey, it’s been real. Enjoy the rest of your journey.” He ran his hand through his hair again and moved towards his car.

“Yeah, whatever. Um..thanks again.” She gave a slight wave, then entered her car turning it on and cranking up the heat. She watched as he pulled away and then slammed her head onto the steering wheel, setting off the horn. What the hell was that?

One thing she did know for sure, road rage guy, Kylo, was hot. And thankfully, she’d never see him again.


End file.
